Today, while in one of our local eating establishments, I saw a young lady I go to church with. Her mama & little brother were with her. She also had her sweet baby girl, who is almost 2 & her brand new baby boy, with her. Her baby girl was running around, trying to make as many friends as she could, with the patrons, before her mama whisked her away & back over to their table. The baby boy was taking a bottle & fretting a little.

I asked my friend, “What are ya’ll doing?” She smiles and says, “Just loafin’.”

For those of you who do not understand what she meant, maybe I can enlighten you, on one of the ways of our culture.  In the South, there is a certain art to what we call “loafin’ “.  When we are out & about, without any real designation to where we need to be going or what we should be doing, we are loafin’ .  Some may say “loaferin’.  Either way, you have no schedule, no concern whatsoever for time.  Things are slow.  You are unhurried.  There is no need, to pay any mind, to how long it takes you to do anything.  You have no agenda.  No thought of what you may or may not do next.  It’s an innocent way of wasting time.  Some people may like to refer to it as, “chillin'”, “cruisin'”, or as my middle daughter says all the time, “just hangin’ out”.  You have no regard for much of anything but right there in the moment of killing time.  However, you can’t loaf or loafer all the time.  That would just make you lazy.

There is one thing, though, that we should be aware of:  what we are doing to guarantee us a home in heaven.  Unlike “loafin”, our spiritual journey should be a work in progress. We can’t be lazy when it comes to the most important thing on our list of things to do while living, “Prepare to get to heaven”.  We should be attentive each day of what work we should be doing to get to heaven.  Then, take action to make sure we don’t miss out.

Jesus tells us in John 14, beginning in verse 1-3:

“Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me.  In My Father’s house are many mansions,  if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you, & if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am , there you may be also.”

I want to be where Jesus is.  I know to get there, I can’t “loaf’ around.  One of the things I must do is have faith, but I am told in James 2: 17 that faith without works is dead.  I can’t have a dead faith!

I Corinthians 13: 13 says, “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three: but the greatest of these is love.”

I must also work on having love for those around me.  I must treat people as I want to be treated (Matthew 7:12).  I must be meek, a peacemaker, pure in heart, merciful, & let my light shine (Matthew 5:5-16).  I have to be always endeavoring to keep the commandments of the Lord.

Jesus talks about not knowing when Judgment Day will be.

Matthew 24:36 says, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.”

Whew!  That’s a lot for an ‘ol girl , like me, to work on.  My prayer is we strive to be as Godly as possible.  Not letting one day slip by us when we could have served God.  We just don’t know when Jesus will come back to get us.  In our Christian life, we can’t be caught “loafin’.”

I am so glad you came by to visit with me today.  I have been so busy lately.  Not only has it been summer with kids out of school & such.  My oldest daughter got married!  (I will fill you in on that later.) Until then, I have to go, because I should be washing clothes.

Peace doesn’t mean you won’t have problems.  It means problems won’t have you.- Lecrae